The present invention is used in a device for supplying energy by means of a first DC voltage source to one or several drive systems which comprise several electric motors and which are connected to the first DC voltage, said motors being in energy-consumption respective energy generation function phases during their operation, whereby said phases e.g. can have a varying appearance. As a suitable example of a drive case a device can be mentioned which comprises a plurality of yarn feeding devices, so-called xe2x80x9cfournisseursxe2x80x9d, each of which being equipped with its own drive motor, said yarn feeders co-acting with the weft yarn insertion system in a shuttleless weaving machine for feeding the weft yarn into the machine for producing a woven fabric having a multi-colour pattern.
In many cases of operating electric motors a great part of the xe2x80x9cworkxe2x80x9d consists in energy consuming acceleration and energy generating deceleration. The useful generated energy can be relatively small, but occurring top effects can nonetheless be significant. In cases of severe deceleration during a long period of time, e.g. several minutes, a known but complicated solution is to feed the energy generated back to the mains. Examples of such cases are the braking of rollers in the paper industry, in wire drawing or metal sheet drawing plants.
Another type of cases is where the input and output effects are high but the duration is so short that the respective energy amounts remain moderate. Examples of such cases are industry robots and yarn feeding devices for weaving machines, so-called weft feeding devices.
It is also known in cases with low top effects, which occur with short durations, to directly store the generated brake energy in capacitors and to later use it for accelerating and driving the electric motors in the drive system in question.
A very common method for taking care of the generated brake energy in electric motors is to convert it into heat, e.g. through over-magnetisation of the motors or through utilisation of brake resistors.
Furthermore, it is possible to achieve a certain voltage evening out effect by means of the capacitors that normally exist in the DC intermediate net section, to which the controls of the electric motors are connected.
One problem, when feeding back brake energy to the mains, is the fact that the motor braking function disappears at a current-failure. Therefore, such systems often are completed by brake resistors or by mechanical brakes. The principle of directly storing brake energy in capacitors and the use of the stored brake energy at a later moment for acceleration and drive of the electric motors in the system has been economically advantageous only for small top effects in practical cases up to now, up to some 100 Watts. When there are several electric motors in a drive system, there is often one common power supply part to the electric motors, for example a so-called DC intermediate section. Input effects respective generated brake effects can in these cases amount to values from some 100 Watts, as for example in a case with a system of yarn feeding devices, up to several tens of kW in other examples of drive cases. Up to now, when using the known capacitor arrangements, this has caused problems and it has become necessary to apply the above-mentioned methods of converting the braking energy into heat by over-magnetisation and/or by brake resistors. However, the then occurring heat development is causing big disadvantages. If the heat is to be taken up in the electric motors, those often have to by over-dimensioned.
As basic requirements, and in order to secure good functions of several electric motors and motor controls commonly connected to a first voltage source, and particularly for electronic components of moderate price, a relatively stable supply voltage is usually needed. In earlier known devices this requirement is limiting the amount of energy which practically is possible to be stored in co-action with evening-out effects, achieved by capacitors, which evening-out effects are occurring in the DC feed sections to which the motor controls are connected. To maintain a relatively stable supply voltage the amount of storable energy is relatively limited.
Thus, there exists a demand to be able to save electric energy, to avoid heat developments and to decrease input top effects into the drive system. It is the primary object of the present invention to solve the problem complex mentioned above. Furthermore, it is desirable to build a drive system in the form of a modular system, e.g. with several storing places, and to design the device such that it is possible to store a considerable amount of energy even if available space is limited, i.e. avoiding big size, expensive capacitors, and to nevertheless maintain the supply voltage relatively stable such that moderate price electronic components can be used which otherwise were damaged by severe voltage variations.
WO 99/52193 discloses a power controller of a distributed generation power networking system including a common DC-voltage bus and several interlinked energy components and a power generating or power consuming turbine as a primary energy source. A respective bi-directional power converter is provided between each energy component including the turbine and the DC-voltage bus such that each energy component communicates with the DC-voltage bus in either direction exclusively via the associated power converter. The power controller constituting a common power converter control unit controls the way in which each energy component, at any moment, will sink or source power, and the manner in which the DC-voltage bus is regulated. The various energy components include energy sources, loads, storage devices and combinations thereof. One storage device is designed as a ultracap conventionally containing at least one capacitor. The bi-directional power converters of all participating energy components are needed for achieving the compatibility between the various energy components. The power networking system is a closed system without any connection to a permanent DC-voltage supply system.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,153,949 A is related to an electrical power management system of a radio communication device. Power provided by a main power supply is supplied by a DC-DC step up converter in a first operational state to a load and simultaneously for energy storing to a capacitor. In another operational state where the load momentarily requires more power than can be provided by the power supply the energy stored in the capacitor is provided to the converter to use the stored energy. In the second operational state, the system is disconnected from the power supply.
The invention is mainly characterised in that the common DC-voltage bus is associated with at least one DC-voltage energy storing buffer via a controlled variable voltage converter, which in dependence of detections of one or more DC-voltage and/or DC-current parameters occurring during the operation of the electric motors brings about precisely defined energy flows from the DC-voltage bus into the DC-voltage energy storing buffer during energy generation function phases and from the DC-voltage energy storing buffer to the DC-voltage but during energy consumption function phases of the electric motors. Further features consist of the fact the controlled energy flows bring about an evening out of the DC-voltage variations in the DC-voltage bus and for the respective electric motors, i.e. and extreme advantageous voltage stability allowing to implement fair cost electronic components like effect transistors, in the device and the electric motors as well as in the electric motor control, which components otherwise are vulnerable to severe voltage variations, and in that the DC-voltage energy storing buffer is design to constitute and active storing buffer for DC-energy. The storing buffer is built of or comprises relatively small sized or only few capacitors for the storing function. Particularly peak energy loads, which might damage sensitive electronic components, are evened out by causing a respective, precisely control energy flow. Both important advantages (small voltage variations in the DC-voltage bus, only few capacitance needed for storing considerable energy amount) are achieved by the variable voltage converter accurately controlling the respective energy flows in direction and rates strictly depending from the actual voltage less current states. The variable voltage converter may be a controlled, bi-directional, switched mode DC/DC-voltage converter. The electric motors are supplied with DC-voltage predominantly via the rectifying component and from the common external power source. The device is completed by the active DC-voltage energy storing buffer secondarily for evening out otherwise occurring significant DC-voltage variations in the DC-voltage bus during energy consumption function phases and/or energy generation function phases of the electric motors. That is, the energy amount sourced into the DC-voltage during an energy generating function phase of at least one of the electric motors which otherwise caused a significant DC-voltage variation in the DC-voltage is directed into the DC-voltage energy storing buffer to avoid the undesirable DC-voltage variation in the DC voltage bus. Moreover, during a energy consumption function phase of at least one of the electric motors a measured energy amount is directed into the DC-voltage energy storing buffer to avoid another DC-voltage variation in the DC-voltage still supplied with the DC power from the common DC power unit in order to suppress a significant DC-voltage variation. The device constitutes an open system permanently supplied with DC power from the common DC power unit with an internal active DC-voltage energy storing buffer employed for evening out DC-voltage variation for the electric motors allowing to use fair cost electronic components in the motor controls and the electric motors which electronic components otherwise would suffer from drastic DC-voltage variations. Since the electric motors directly and in parallel are connected to the DC-voltage bus the electric motors are able to electrically communicate with the DC-voltage bus in completely unobstructed fashion avoiding undesirable energy losses and enhancing a direct and immediate response behaviour of each electric motor to control commands.
In one embodiment the variable voltage converter is connected to the DC voltage bus associated with the first DC voltage source to which DC voltage bus said electric motors commonly are connected or can be connected via their motor controls. The variable voltage converter is also connected to the second DC voltage source. A control unit may be connected for sensing parameter information related to voltage/current from the DC voltage bus and the second DC voltage source. Said information also can be related to xe2x80x9ctarget valuexe2x80x9d respective xe2x80x9cactual valuexe2x80x9d of direction and/or amount or rate of the energy flows between the DC voltage sources. In one embodiment the control unit mentioned furthermore can be arranged such that it is controllable from a superior control system, e.g. a first control system, which is controlling the electric motors in question. Alternatively, the control unit mentioned can be controllable from a second control system which is communicating with the first control system mentioned.
During the energy variations that occur when one or several motors are driven in the system, an energy transmission is taking place between the first and the second DC voltage source, for example at deceleration, and vice versa e.g. at the start or acceleration of the motor/motors. Furthermore, the second DC voltage source can be arranged to be recharged before start of one or more of the electric motors. Such a recharge can be done from a separate DC current source or a separate DC current net. In a preferred embodiment, the DC voltage level in the first DC voltage source is kept at an essentially constant value, e.g. a value that has an accuracy of xc2x110% of the nominal value of the DC voltage. The second DC voltage source, on the other hand, works with a strongly varying DC voltage level, which e.g. can vary within a range of between 60-310 V. The capacitors comprised in the second DC voltage source are arranged to become charged and discharged essentially in a maximum way by said energy flows. The capacitors operate with a set operation energy charge level which is lower than the possible maximum charge level, e.g. is set about 75%, such that the capacitors are able to further store energy even if the set charge level has been reached, and to further discharge energy when the charge level has already dropped to the set charge level.
The electric motors can for example be comprised in yarn feeders, industrial robots and/or textile machines. Examples of application of the invention in a textile machine can be the case of a jacquard weaving machine for producing a pattern fabric, which machine has a first electric motor (xe2x80x9cmain motorxe2x80x9d) for driving the weaving machine itself, in preferably a conventional way, and a second electric motor (separate) driving the jacquard mechanism (xe2x80x9cjacquard motorxe2x80x9d), alternatively a number of small electric motors that corresponds to the number of warp yarns/harness wires, whereby each such small motor is arranged to be responsible for raising/lowering of its respective warp yarn, via its corresponding harness wire, for achieving the formation of a shed system which would generate the desired pattern during the weaving process. The first electric motor (xe2x80x9cmain motorxe2x80x9d) and the second electric motor (xe2x80x9cjacquard motorxe2x80x9d), alternatively the first electric motor (xe2x80x9cmain motorxe2x80x9d) and said small electric motors (xe2x80x9charness motorsxe2x80x9d), form in each of these two alternative cases the drive system with which the device according tot he invention is arranged to co-act for achieving energy evening-out. A further, third alternative in the case of a jacquard weaving machine could be that only the (great number of) xe2x80x9charness motorsxe2x80x9d (small motors) may form the drive system (of motors) with which the device according to the invention is arranged to co-act for achieving energy evening-out.
The variable voltage converter comprised in the system according to the invention may comprise an inductance, transformer or corresponding component which is connected to the first voltage source via effect transistors, the control input ports of which are connected to the control unit mentioned above, which in dependence of the DC current and/or the DC voltage parameters actuate respectively de-actuate the transistors for controlling the directions and/or amounts of the energy flows between the first and the second DC voltage sources in switched modii. The electric motors may, advantageously, comprise or consist of PM (permanent magnet) motors having high efficiency.
With a solution according to the one proposed above, it will be possible to re-use the stored brake energy from the electric motors at a later moment and to thereby be able to save energy and to decrease energy losses in the form of heat in the system. Furthermore, by using the stored brake energy for the acceleration of the electric motors, the amount of energy taken from the power supply can be decreased, which means that the power supply can be made smaller. The advantages of using capacitors are essential, since the energy content in the capacitors is a square function of the voltage variations, which means that one can use the capacitors in practice as a buffer within a relatively very large range. The use of e.g. several other DC voltage sources makes it possible to further increase the level of the energy stored in the capacitors. A wider use of PM motors having high efficiency and small size, in which it is difficult to burn away the brake energy in the motor/motors, have become possible due to the invention. Relatively inexpensive effect transistors e.g. in the electric motors, and high energy prices makes the solution according to the invention especially interesting to use in practice.